France, you have my condolences: Muslim leader calls for doubling of mosque numbers within two years

Subject: France, you have my condolences: Muslim leader calls for doubling of mosque numbers within two years Mon Apr 06, 2015 2:30 am

France’s total of some 2,200 mosques is not enough for the national Muslim community, the head of the French Muslim Council, Dalil Boubakeur, told an annual gathering of Muslim organizations. He insisted that the number should be doubled within two years.“We have a lot of meeting places and unfinished mosques, and there are a lot of mosques that are not yet built,” he said on Saturday in a speech at the annual meeting of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF) in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget.“We need double [that number] within two years,” he added, according to AFP.The UOIF president and the organizer of the meeting, Amar Lasfar, agreed that the number of mosques must reflect the number of Muslims in France.“We have the right to build mosques, and for mayors not to oppose it,” Lasfar stressed.The official estimate on the number of Muslims living in France varies from four to five million people, but the Muslim leaders insist the real number is closer to seven million.